eCBOT Close, Early Call

The overnight session closed with little change either way, beans finished around 2 cents higher, with corn and wheat flat, fractions either side of unchanged.

Export sales were very robust for corn, coming in close to 1.5 MMT, with soybeans also putting in a strong show, with once again China taking the vast majority of both old and new crop sales. Wheat sales were in line with projections.

China booked a further 205,000 MT of soybeans overnight, and Japan took 126,000 MT of mostly US wheat.

For now the US weather remains largely favourable and non-threatening, with good potential for some very decent yields in many states. However, night time temperatures will drop to 12 degrees below normal on Saturday morning over the Western Corn Belt, says Allen Motew of QT Weather. Similar departures a month from now would bring frost, he warns.

Yesterday's news that the CFTC is to get tough on trading limits is keeping the market cautious.

Various news reports in circulation suggest that the trade is generally relaxed about the situation developing in India.

"However bad the situation gets this year, you can still rule out any need for wheat and rice imports," Reuters quotes one "expert" as saying.

The Indian government is also relaxed saying that it has sufficient grain stocks to last thirteen months. How convenient is that, as thirteen months gets us to the end of next year's monsoon season.

The maths don't stack up in a country that consumes 92.4 million tonnes of rice and 77.6 million tonnes of wheat every year. I suppose that they could always "let them eat cake" when the rice and bread runs out?

Early calls for this afternoon's CBOT session: corn called steady to 2 higher; beans called 2 to 5 higher; wheat called flat to 2 higher.